{"id":8220,"date":"2014-06-24T15:37:52","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T22:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/?p=8220"},"modified":"2019-04-05T12:51:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T19:51:52","slug":"four-year-old-speech-milestones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/speech-disorders\/four-year-old-speech-milestones\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Expect: Your Four-Year-Old&#8217;s Speech Milestones"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_663\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/speech1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-663\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-663 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/speech1-150x150.png\" alt=\"Your Four-Year-Old's Speech Milestones\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/speech1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/speech1.png 257w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-663\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Your Four-Year-Old&#8217;s Speech Milestones. Image source: teachtofeed.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When it comes to speech and language skills, every\u00a0child develops at a different rate. That being said, there are some generally predictable milestones that each child achieves as they grow and learn. It usually takes about 8 years for a child to master all the speech sounds in the English language.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Although there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, there are 44 distinct sounds!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Heidi Hanks, M.S.CCC-SLP, founder of Little Bee Speech, and the terrific website <a title=\"Mommy Speech Therapy\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mommyspeechtherapy.com\" target=\"_blank\">Mommy Speech Therapy<\/a>, one way to determine if your child\u2019s speech is progressing at a normal rate is using what is called \u201cspeech sound norms.\u201d According to Heidi, speech sound norms are tools that speech language pathologists (SLP\u2019s) use to help guide them in determining which errors are developmentally appropriate and which errors are not. There are multiple speech sound norms that are currently being used by SLP\u2019s all around the world.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>How do you know what these &#8220;speech sound norms&#8221; are, or what exactly your four-year-old&#8217;s speech milestones should be? \u00a0Here are a few expectations or norms\u00a0to review to ensure that your child&#8217;s\u00a0speech habits are meeting the general guidelines. For more detailed information about speech sound expectations at every age, Heidi Hanks has an excellent\u00a0<a title=\"Speech Sounds Development Chart\" href=\"http:\/\/mommyspeechtherapy.com\/wp-content\/downloads\/forms\/sound_development_chart.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Speech Sound Development Chart<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>What to Expect: Your Four-Year-Old\u2019s Speech Milestones:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>By age 3, most children can make vowel sounds and pronounce the consonants p, b, m, n, d, g and h. At ages 4 and into age 5, look for him\u00a0to pronounce more complex consonant and blend sounds like <strong>k, t, f, v, j, th, ng, ch<\/strong> and <strong>sh<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Language language skills of your four-year-old are expanding rapidly at this point. Expect your child to begin communicating in complex and<strong> compound sentences<\/strong>, and expand his vocabulary daily.<\/li>\n<li>Your four-year-old should\u00a0be able to\u00a0initiate conversations and is\u00a0<strong>less likely to change the subject<\/strong> of conversation to areas of personal interest.<\/li>\n<li>Four-year-olds are building their knowledge of written language. By the end of his fourth year, expect your child to be able to\u00a0understand that letters represent the sounds in spoken words and may <strong>associate some letters with their sounds<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Most children are also capable of writing some legible letters and know that writing goes from left-to-right and top to bottom.<\/li>\n<li>Your child should be <strong>easy to understand<\/strong> all of the time, although he or she may experience a few articulation errors such as substituting \u201cw\u2019 for \u201cr\u201d (for example saying wabbit instead of rabbit).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Or substituting a \u201cb\u201d instead of a \u201cv\u201d (for example saying bideo instead of video).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your four-year-old fails to meet these general guidelines, or\u00a0continues to have trouble pronouncing sounds correctly as she gets older, \u00a0she may have a speech disorder. Use these guidelines or norms to assess your child and if it sounds like you&#8217;re\u00a0missing a milestone, check-in with your pediatrician.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a title=\"American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association\" href=\"http:\/\/www.asha.org\" target=\"_blank\">American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association<\/a>\u00a0has more information on the topic or try our quick diagnostic to figure out what your next step would be:\u00a0<a title=\"Diagnose your Child\u2019s Speech Challenge: our quick free guide\" href=\"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/speech-disorders\/diagnose-childs-speech-challenge-quick-free-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\">Diagnose Your Child&#8217;s Speech\u00a0Challenge: Our Free Guide.<\/a><\/p>\n    <span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\" id=\"\">\n    <span class=\"hs-cta-node \" id=\"\">\n        <!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]-->\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/speechbuddy.com\/guides\/communication-challenges\" ><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img lazyload\" id=\"\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 655px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 655\/211;border-width:0px;\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/533600a3-8950-4500-aa3b-fab8818be024.png\"  alt=\"Parent's Guide to Speech & Communication Challenges\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" \/><\/a>\n    <\/span>\n    <\/span>\n    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to speech and language skills, every\u00a0child develops at a different rate. That being said, there are some generally predictable milestones that each child achieves as they grow and learn. It usually takes about 8 years for a child to master all the speech sounds in the English language. Although there are only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":8285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1323,1739,28],"tags":[1297,1368,1411,132,29,1329,128,350,1562],"class_list":["post-8220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language-development","category-parents-corner","category-pronunciation-lisps","category-speech-disorders","tag-communication","tag-communication-milestones","tag-communication-skills","tag-early-intervention","tag-language-development-1","tag-parents-corner-2","tag-speech-and-language-development","tag-speech-delays","tag-speech-milestones"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/speech-milestones-4-year-old.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8220"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8287,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8220\/revisions\/8287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}